The word “wound” is a general term for injury inflicted upon a part of a body, and a wound can be generally classified into two kinds: an “incised wound” which refers to any of open wounds caused by cutting with a sharp material such as a knife; a “blunt wound” which refers to any of closed wounds without rupture of skin caused by hitting with a blunt object such as a blunt weapon.
Conventionally, when the wound is an “incised wound” which is an open wound, its dehiscence is prevented by means of closing and holding the wound with adhesive plaster or roll bandage or something like that when the wound is shallow, and in the case of a deep wound, the dehiscence is prevented by closing the wound by means of suturing with suture thread and the like. Further, in the case of the means of suturing with suture thread, in order to prevent the dehiscence that may be caused by breaking of the suture thread by external force or the like, it has been generally practiced that a more conservative choice is made in selecting from a plurality of suture threads having appropriate thicknesses.
However, a use of a thick suture thread is apt to leave a more conspicuous trace of suture operation, so that it is not a preferable practice. Also when a thick suture thread is used and thereby the skin tissue surrounding the wound is over-forced to gather over the wound with the stitches, the circulation of the blood and the like through the tissues surrounding the sutured wound would become insufficient, whereupon the tissues surrounding the sutured wound gradually undergo necrosis and a dehiscence would result.
Furthermore, in the case of a suturing on the occasion of surgical operation or the like, the tissues surrounding the wound must be gathered toward the wound. For this reason, the suture thread and the tissues surrounding the wound tug each other. Under this situation, when an external force is imparted the suture thread, if it is thin, would break, and, if it is thick, the tissues surrounding the wound would rupture. In other words, even if a suture thread of a suitable thickness is selected, it has been sometimes difficult to prevent dehiscence.
Among some surgeons, a use of a padding implement is proposed in order to appease the pains to the patient through prevention of dehiscence and distortion of the stitched skin caused by suture thread as well as necrosis (for example, see Publication-in-IP 1).
Publication-in-IP 1 proposes a padding implement for prevention of dehiscence wherein the padding implement is disposed to have a large area to contact the wounded part so as to avoid concentration of stress at the wounded tissues, and it is shaped in a manner such that it is able to impart tension to the thread, and it is formed with a guide slit for rendering the thread winding easy and with a thread fixing slit.
However the padding implements for prevention of dehiscence such as the one mentioned above require mastering of the technique for the use of the dehiscence prevention padding implements before the surgical operation wherein the padding implement is applied during the suture. Also it is necessary to detach and attach the padding implement whenever the padding implement is to be disinfected and the wounded part is to be dried, and the technique for this detachment and attachment work must also be mastered beforehand. Furthermore, the patient must be willing to lead a life wherein he or she has to watch out for the external forces that may come to the dehiscence prevention padding implement applied to the sutured area, especially for the force inflicted when the patient turns round in bed while asleep or the like. Also, there are scarce number of books and theses that discourse upon the remedy of dehiscence scientifically, and the current situation is that there are no established methods for the remedy and the prevention of it. Especially in the case of dehiscence caused by the necrosis of the tissues surrounding the sutured wound resulting from poor circulation of blood or the like, no good result is expected from re-suturing, and it is not a rare case wherein the surgeon cannot help but resort to the classical remedy of removing all the sutured threads, excising the necrotic tissues, covering the wound with a wound dressing, and expecting for a natural healing; hence the patient is not infrequently forced to be hospitalized or continue visiting the hospital for a long time. Therefore it has not been an easy thing to prevent dehiscence itself and to use and manipulate the conventional aids for prevention of dehiscence to avoid dehiscence, and the current situation is that there has been no such means as to solve these disadvantages.